Jumping
by ponponpon
Summary: A series of transcripts/translations relating to the suicide of Madotsuki as told by individuals that knew of her.


This is a series of transcripts/articles about an incident where a young woman jumped off her apartment building balcony. It was a fairly notorious incident. I started translating this for practice so please forgive any mistakes. I take no credit for this, just the translation. There's no original author attached to it or any names at all, it was posted to a website that was empty apart from this recording entitled 'Shigatsu' (April). Hopefully I'll be able to post more in the future!

When all is said and done, I think I was the right person for the cleaning job.

I've lived in this building for five years 'cause it's cheap and was near my university at the time. I have some real good memories of this place, it's one of those real old-style apartment complexes with shared bathrooms but it doesn't bother me. I'm a simple guy; comfort isn't a big deal so long as I have a pack of cigs I'm happy.

I don't really know any of the neighbours, most of the students I knew at university have moved closer to the city and it's just a bunch of old bachelors and foreigners teaching English left. Ah, there's a woman on the second floor who runs a kimono school since her husband died. She has a cat, a little tabby one. I didn't know that girl though, didn't even hear her move in but I might have been at [_muffled_] or something. I was doing so much overtime then. [_laughs_]

I didn't even know until a few months later that she was there, I like listening to my records pretty loud and she never banged on the floor or told me to shut up. Great neighbour in that respect. First I heard about it was when someone said the corridor outside smelt funny, I was seeing a girl then named [_muffed_] who complained about the smell. No-one ever answered the door, only found out it was a woman by talking to the landlord who didn't care so long as he was getting paid rent. He installed a fan extractor or something though, later, after she jumped.

Is this building haunted? I don't know, maybe now. Yeah, probably now. I definitely believe in something after dying but more for suicides. Can't be good going that way [_buzzing sound_] was a kid, my grandmother told me suicides wander the earth alone, a giant eyeball watching them. Creepy! She was an odd one though, that girl.

The day is kinda fuzzy for me; I was out late the night before hitting some bars but didn't notice anything on the way back or when I went for a piss in the bathroom. I might have heard someone crying but I might be imagining it or hoping there was a reason for her. You think a body hitting the pavement would shake the Earth itself somehow but she just lay there for a few minutes, I think someone lower in the building rang an ambulance and there were some people shouting for help. It's all blurry, not very clear for me at all. [_static_]

[_tape changes to a distorted song for twenty seconds, possibly indication of interview break?_]

- [_static_] said I'd clean out the room, sure. The landlord is tight with his cash but he was offering a few days' money for a basic job, I'm not that superstitious though my girlfriend was dead against it, waving incense over my head before I left her place. I got the train back, there was some sort of festival on and there were children with their families everywhere. Funny thing is, I rang my girlfriend from a phonebox at the station and told her I loved her, like I thought I wasn't going to leave that room [_laughs_] crazy thinking but it just got me, y'know? That woman wasn't old, not old at all. Not old enough to have problems like that.

I had the keys, usually girls can't stop themselves decorating the shit out of their stuff with Hello Kitty or whatever, but there was just this grubby frog keychain with two keys, one for the door and the other for the balcony. Wanna another drink? [_muffled_] I'll be right back.

[_sound of footsteps, cupboard opening, clink of bottle_]

I had some garbage bags 'cause I remembered about the smell though it wasn't so bad outside and my girlfriend had bought me some gloves. Figured I could do some brushing up, polish, then leave the balcony doors open to air out the place. Not too bad for a couple of hours work. At the door was one of those little mascot characters, I think one of the foreign girls had left it. They were shaken up most about it. It was a nice thing, something my girlfriend would do. There was a glass of water too, don't know about that.

The smell was weird, like dead flowers and old paper; it reminded me of a temple. The air was so still the first thing I did was slide open the balcony door but there wasn't any wind that day so not much relief. Lit a smoke instead and it smelt better then, normal. I was worried she'd have a ton of stuff more because I wanted to do it quick but standing there, I was creeped out. There was this trippy rug on the floor and the bed was all neatly made up.

Out on the balcony, there was a broom and slippers, new with the tags still on. I don't know why I remember that so clearly. I sometimes heard her on the balcony, tapping her fingers on the rail. People said her feet was almost black with dirt but people were saying a lot then, guys like you crawling all over the place.

She was a reader, one wall was bookshelves - mostly books on history of the West, botanical stuff, found a box with some gardening stuff in so she must have liked the outside once. Everything was tiny, child-sized, but she was a small woman. Pretty too, I think. Ever realise you missed a chance? I think about her crying, if she did cry. Maybe I should have knocked on the door. I think about knocking a drum solo on her door, to make her laugh. [_pause, clearing throat_] where was I? [_clink of a bottle_] Society wants to take all the responsibility these days, doesn't it?

[_tape changes back to old folk song, quality is really poor - sorry_!]

I'm a musician, it's my hobby. I'm not much of a singer, I get together with some friends at the weekends and we play together. I'm glad to have these people in my life, though I don't know if I'd want them going through my stuff after I was dead. Viking! That's the solution. Burn the lot. [_laughs_] The girl, she had a Famicon with a cart jammed into it, NASU? Never heard of it. Didn't work either. I remember hearing video game music sometimes, at night or in the early hours. Went well with my Sex Pistol records [_laughs_] but going through all her possessions, it seemed like she had no hobbies. I was just going to bag up her desk things, I'd already been there for hours [_muffled, conversation is very quiet here_] and just laying on that rug, thinking. It was getting dark; I had other plans so I slung the rest into some garbage bags and carried it down to the dumpster.

There were four or five bags, that's it. I'd left the rug, the bed, the slippers. Didn't seem important. I went back to my apartment and slept for a few hours, don't remember my dreams which is unusual, I always do. Woke up, had a drink of water and it was strange, like a dream, I went down to the dumpster and dug through the trash until I found her bags, pulling them open for something, just something. A memento. I'm not a morbid guy. She had these journals. Like comic books or something, that she drew. I don't look at them.

My girlfriend doesn't know I have them, she'd probably freak. I don't think it's stealing, is it? Do the dead care? A few days ago, me and my friends were hanging out here, drinking and shitting each other up with ghost stories. Jokes about me and my dead girlfriend.

No-one lived upstairs then but when I went out on my balcony to light a smoke, I swear I could hear someone crying.

[_tape switches to song again until the end, much clearer this time:_  
><em>"Is it a kind of dream,<em>  
><em>Floating out on the tide,<em>  
><em>Following the river of death downstream?<em>  
><em>Oh, is it a dream?"<em>  
><em>- Bright Eyes, Art Garfunkel<em>]

Author's Note: Obviously this isn't a transcript of an actual conversation just in case someone doesn't realise this is the internet and not real-life.


End file.
